Mo Farah and Greg Rutherford arrive on Tyneside in preparation for the Great North Run weekend
World class athletes including Olympic Champions Mo Farah, Jo Pavey and Greg Rutherford are arriving in Newcastle ahead of this weekend's sporting events - the Great North CityGames and the Great North Run.
56,000 runners are expected to take part in the Great North Run, one of the world's largest half marathon.
Greg Rutherford will be celebrating his grand slam of major championship titles with an end-of season appearance on Tyneside this Saturday.
The Milton Keynes long jumper will be joining Mo Farah on Friday for preparations at St James’ Park.
Rutherford’s triumph in the long jump final at the World Championships in Beijing brought his haul of major titles to four in four summers, making him the fifth British athlete to complete a set of world, Olympic, European and Commonwealth gold medals – after Daley Thompson, Linford Christie, Sally Gunnell and Jonathan Edwards.
It also matched the number of major medals that his great grandfather won as a flying right-winger with Newcastle United in Edwardian times.
Jock Rutherford, who was known as ‘the Newcastle Flier', won a hat-trick of top-flight titles with the Magpies, in 1905, 1907 and 1909, and was also a member of the Newcastle team that won the FA Cup in 1910.
Tyneside-born Jock won 11 caps for England and went on to play for Arsenal at the age of 41.
British long-distance and middle-distance runner Mo Farah will also be in the region today preparing for the half-marathon on Sunday.
The Olympic gold medallist made history in August when he completed a hat-trick of long-distance doubles at global championships by retaining his world 5,000 metres title in Beijing.
Will you be taking part in the Great North Run weekend? Send us your preparation and race photographs to pamandian@itv.com.